The Daleks' Master Plan

Terry Nation had many faults as a writer, many of which were embarrassingly displayed in The Chase. At first glance, The Daleks’ Master Plan seems to have many of the same qualities. Both stories feature the Doctor being pursued by the Daleks throughout time and space. Both are filled with B-movie threats- in this story, we have invisible monsters, man-eating plants and prisoners taking over a ship, amongst other things. However, this story is so superior to The Chase that it makes one wonder how it could have come from the same mind. If any two stories prove ‘it’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it’ it’s these two.

The first thing that strikes the viewer about this story is its length. This is a colossal 12-episode epic, nearly 5 hours of television. This obviously begs the question of whether or not the story is padded or not and indeed, I could easily reduce this story to a 3-parter: The taranium is an obvious McGuffin, with most of the story being centred round it. If the Doctor doesn’t steal the taranium, there is no need for episodes 2-10. However, this story is well named, as this story has a sense of scale that dwarfs the stories that come before it. The Doctor is, for the first time, battling a threat to the whole universe, with the fates of whole galaxies at stake. Such a story is epic in nature and demands an epic length. The threats confronted transcend B-movie cliché- the Varga plants make sense plotwise and are a genuinely horrific threat and the Visians are also brought to life very effectively through very simple special visual and audio effects. The detour to Desperus might seem a bit pointless, but it ends in the most shocking scene in Doctor Who yet, the death of Katarina. This scene is excellently scripted, acted and directed and the story is all the better for it. The detour to ancient Egypt is very well acted and directed and contains the very welcome return of Peter Butterworth as the Meddling Monk. Unlike in The Chase, although the story takes us to many locations in time and space, it is rooted in one place- the nightmarish planet of Kembel.

Apart from the TARDIS crew and the Daleks, the other main player in the story is Mavic Chen, brought to life in a powerhouse performance by Kevin Stoney. Chen is a man who is already the most powerful human being ever and yet wants more. He is depicted as a man of wit, intelligence and charisma, but with an egotism that increases as the story goes on and eventually drives him to madness, believing himself to be a god who rules the Daleks. The only issue I have is with Chen’s make-up. He is meant to be ‘part-Oriental’, which the make-up team interpreted by darkening Stoney’s skin and taping back his eyes. This makes him look like a grotesque, caricatured ‘Chinaman’ which is unfortunate, as Chen’s ethnicity is not mentioned at all in the story, and he is not a Fu Manchu takeoff.

The guest cast is, perhaps, the strongest the programme has had since Marco Polo, and I cannot think of a single poor performance. Nicholas Courtney is memorable as Bret Vyon and it is easy to see why he returned to the programme a couple of times. Even a minor character like Karlton is well brought to life by Maurice Browning It is clear that good deal of thought has gone into characterisation and, importantly, character interplay. For example, Steven is a character from our future, but Sara Kingdom’s past, so that something that Steven would consider contemporary would seem futuristic to us and antediluvian to Sara. This is something which is actually a factor in the way these two characters interact.

The Daleks are totally rehabilitated from the fiasco of The Chase. Here they are scheming, ruthless and efficient. Their voices are brilliant here, after the limp vocal stylings of the previous two stories. As in The Chase Nation throws other monsters against them, but here the Daleks triumph. Their plan is a truly diabolical one and they would not come up with a plan as masterful until 2008.

Hartnell puts in one of his finest performances in this story. The Doctor rages against those who hurt his friends and takes no nonsense from the Daleks, dictating terms to them even when he is at a disadvantage. He also joyfully wraps the Monk up in bandages and whacks Visians with his stick. The length of the story is ably matched by Hartnell’s range. Purves continues to work wonders as Steven- it is mainly due to his performance that Katarina’s death works as well as it does. Adrienne Hill, it must be said, is no more than adequate as Katarina and it is, perhaps, good that the character died before she got too annoying. Jean Marsh as Sara puts in an excellent performance making the character both as tough as nails without making her unsympathetic.

Even though only a quarter of the episodes exist, it is clear that this is where Douglas Camfield got his reputation as one of the programme’s finest directors. As said before, the performances from the guest cast are strong across the board, and Camfield’s choice of camera angles and movement are sublime as is his supervision of editing- there is a great cut from an image of the sun in sky to a glint on the dome of a Dalek.

The Daleks’ Master Plan was the first story to have an episode broadcast on Christmas Day, "The Feast of Steven" and this episode takes a break from the Daleks to give us some light relief for the festive season. The first setting is a charming skit where the doctor is arrested by a policeman after being seen coming out of the TARDIS and the second is set in Hollywood in the Mack Sennet era. It is less successful, but still worthwhile. Then there is the famous scene where the Doctor toasts the viewer at home, which I found to be very well done- as the Doctor says, the TARDIS crew rarely get a chance to celebrate. The inclusion of this interlude is not as random as it looks, as it occurs in a natural break in the story and, although it is business as usual in the next episode, there is still a hilarious interlude at the Oval cricket ground to ease the transition back.

I must also make special mention of the last episode. The previous Dalek stories were resolved with a battle or an explosion. Here we are treated to something truly spectacular. The Time Destructor is turned on and it causes the surface of the Kembel to age. Unfortunately, it has the same effect on Sara and the Doctor and Sara ages to death and decays. Steven manages to turn the machine into reverse, rejuvenating the Doctor and eventually destroying the pursuing Daleks by regressing them into embryos. Kembel is reduced to a desert planet by the time the machine is exhausted. In the midst of this, Steven and the Doctor are left alone to ponder the cost of their victory. It is a truly epic ending to an epic story.

Next: The Massacre